1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of delivery of digital media data (e.g., text, video, and/or audio) over networks such as the Internet, and specifically in one aspect to delivering emergency alert system (EAS) data in a broadcast “IPTV” network.
2. Description of Related Technology
Emergency Alert System (EAS)—
As is well known, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is designed to allow for the rapid and widespread dissemination of information relating to a national or local emergency to the general public. EAS messages are transmitted for either national, state or local emergencies or other events. Examples of these emergencies or events include: severe weather watch/storm warning, flash floods, earthquakes/tsunami, and war or other “man made” emergencies.
The EAS was designed in part by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in cooperation with the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in order to support the roles of each organization. The FCC provides information to broadcasters, cable system operators, and other participants in the EAS regarding the technical and operational requirements of the EAS. Additionally, the FCC ensures that state and local EAS plans conform to FCC rules and regulations. The NWS provides emergency weather information to alert the public about dangerous or potentially conditions weather conditions or other natural events. FEMA provides direction for state and local emergency planning officials to plan and implement their roles in the EAS.
Since Dec. 31, 1998, cable systems that have 10,000 or more subscribers are part of the EAS. These cable systems have the capability to transmit emergency messages on all of their video channels.
Alerts sent via the EAS may arrive in the form of text, audio and/or video content. Depending on the message type, the subscriber's television or set-top box (STB) will display the message in the appropriate format and according to the prescribed method. State and Local area emergency messages may be transmitted by using EAS Header and End of Message Codes. In television environments, the FCC recommends that the codes be preceded by an announcement that informs listeners that an EAS transmission will occur.
In current digital and analog television systems, the EAS transmissions are received from an over-the-air broadcast. The transmission is then used in two different ways.
First, for analog broadcasts, all of the analog channels are either force-tuned to a broadcast of the EAS transmission or create the appropriate overlay of text and audio. Nothing is required at the subscriber (e.g., set-top box) side since all switching and display functionality is performed in the network head-end.
Second, for digital broadcasts, the digital head-end application server receives the transmission and creates the proper audio, video and/or text message for the digital set-top box (DSTB) or other consumer premises equipment. The DSTB is then responsible for displaying the message to the user as prescribed by the government mandate. If the EAS transmission is video, then the DSTB will “forcibly” tune its tuner to the appropriate analog RF channel to receive, decode and display the video.
Testing of the EAS system generally comprises a weekly test consisting of an eight-second digital data signal. There is also a monthly test that utilizes a test script (e.g., “This is a test of the Emergency Alert System—this is only a test . . . ”). The monthly test script may be developed locally and may contain information that is relevant to the local area into which it is being delivered.
Other features of the digital EAS systems include:
(i) Automatic Operation—The EAS digital system architecture allows broadcast stations, cable systems, participating satellite companies, and other services to send and receive emergency information quickly and automatically even if those facilities are unattended;
(ii) Redundancy—The EAS requires monitoring of at least two independent sources for emergency information. This insures that emergency information is received and delivered to viewers and listeners; and
(iii) Multi-language—EAS digital messages can be automatically converted into any language used by the broadcast station or cable system.
“IPTV” and Other Network Paradigms—
Recently, network operators have begun using other types of networks such as Internet protocol (IP) networks to distribute broadcast television programming to subscribers. This is to be contrasted with more traditional radio frequency (over-the-air) broadcasts, or in-band delivery via packetized MPEG-2 program streams. Such IP delivery of broadcast television programming also requires a method for the delivery of EAS data to subscriber units such as personal computers (PC), as well as a method to display such information on the display monitor (and audio system) of these units.
In emerging Internet protocol television (IPTV) and similar distribution networks, a wider choice of audio/video codecs is being considered. For example, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/H.264 (advanced video codec or “AVC”), Windows Media Codec by Microsoft, and RealVideo by Real Networks are a few of the possible audio/video compression formats that have been deployed. While these new formats and their associated compression technology is useful in providing streaming audio/video programs to end users, these formats do not typically support any type of EAS data delivery. While some video codecs have the ability to embed caption or similar information within the video stream (MPEG-2/MPEG-4, etc.), many video codecs do not (e.g., RealVideo). Accordingly, the ability to transport at least some of the EAS information to the displaying client outside of the content (e.g., video) packet streams would be of particular utility.
Other Emergency Alert Approaches—
A variety of other approaches to emergency alert transmission over a network (and display be user devices) are evidenced in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,955 to Belcher, et al. issued Nov. 23, 1976 entitled “Method and apparatus for establishing emergency communications in a two-way cable television system” discloses a two-way cable television communications system wherein a central or master station is coupled to a plurality of remote stations through a coaxial cable network, each remote unit is provided with means for decoding an emergency alert transmission signal from the master station to generate an internal signal to sound an annunciator, alerting a subscriber or viewer at the remote station that an emergency communication is forthcoming, switching on a television receiver at the remote station, if the television receiver is not on, and tuning the television receiver through a converter to a predetermined television channel to condition the television receiver to receive emergency communications from the master station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,555 issued May 29, 2001 to Shoff, et al entitled “Interactive entertainment system for presenting supplemental interactive content together with continuous video programs” discloses an interactive entertainment system that enables presentation of supplemental interactive content along side traditional broadcast video programs. The programs are broadcast in a conventional manner. The supplemental content is supplied as part of the same program signal over the broadcast network, or separately over another distribution network. A viewer computing unit is located at the viewer's home to present the program and supplemental content to a viewer. When the viewer tunes to a particular channel, the viewer computing unit consults an electronic programming guide (EPG) to determine if the present program carried on the channel is interactive. If it is, the viewer computing unit launches a browser. The browser uses a target specification stored in the EPG to activate a target resource containing the supplemental content for enhancing the broadcast program. The target resource contains display layout instructions prescribing how the supplemental content and the video content program are to appear in relation to one another when displayed. When the data from the target resource is downloaded, the viewer computing unit is responsive to the layout instructions obtained from the target resource to display the supplemental content concurrently with the video content program. Embedding the layout instructions in the supplemental content places control of the presentation to the content developers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,492 to Drury issued on Sep. 17, 2002 entitled “Emergency alert system” discloses an alert system for providing an alert of an actual or impending emergency to homes, businesses and the like. The alert system is used in cable system network over which communication signals are transmitted to a receiver remote from the transmitter. Such communication signals have associated therewith at least one distinguishable modulation frequency. The alert system includes a mechanism for receiving an alert request and a transmitter for transmitting an alert signal in response to the alert request. The transmitter is coupled with the cable system and generates an alert signal which is modulated at a frequency distinguishable from the frequencies of the communication signals. The transmitter includes a sideband filter to reduce the subharmonics generated around the alert signal frequency. The receiver includes a mechanism for detecting a valid alert signal from the alert signal received and for generating an alarm signal therefrom. The alert system also comprises an alarm indicator connected to the receiver providing an alarm upon receipt of an alarm signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,534 to Gerszberg, et al. issued Mar. 30, 2004 entitled “Lifeline service for HFCLA network using wireless ISD” discloses a system architecture for bypassing a local exchange carrier comprises an intelligent terminal, a residential gateway coupled to the terminal, a cable facility management platform terminating a twisted pair or coaxial cable facility and a network service platform. The twisted pair and/or coaxial cable fed, integrated residence gateway controlled intelligent terminal or set-top device provides a plurality of enhanced services. One necessary service is lifeline service that may be provided over the coaxial cable via a cable modem of the integrated residence gateway, over the twisted pair facility or via wireless means. The integrated residence gateway is coupled to either or both of the coaxial cable or twisted pair and distributes the bandwidth facilities available over either service vehicle to customer devices including the set top box. Wireless lifeline or emergency services may be offered through transceivers placed at the integrated residence gateways and/or at taps feeding the integrated residence gateways.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,163 issued Jul. 20, 2004 to Sharma entitled “Method and system of displaying teletext information on mobile devices” discloses a communication system and method for communicating teletext information to mobile stations. A wireless access protocol (WAP) server is coupled to a television station and receives a signal which includes teletext information from the station. The WAP server includes a teletext decoder which decodes the teletext information in the transmitted signal. The decoded information is stored in memory using a server controller. The controller receives information requests from a network interface coupled to the mobile stations. The controller accesses the teletext information stored in memory and transmits the information to the mobile station through the network interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,302 issued Aug. 3, 2004 to Nimri, et al entitled “Videoconference closed caption system and method” discloses a system and method for closed caption in a videoconference environment. In a method according to one embodiment of the invention, a connection is established with a videoconference device. Subsequently, a closed caption page associated with the videoconference device is selected. Text is then entered on the closed caption page. The text is displayed to at least one device associated with a videoconference in which the videoconference device is participating.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,616 issued Sep. 14, 2004 entitled “System and method for providing a plurality of programming services in a television system” discloses a system and method of providing for displaying a full service cable television system. The cable television system is adapted to provide a plurality of different user services. Accordingly, the system and method are designed to allow a user to access services in an efficient memory conserving fashion. Using a plurality of data tables, a cable television system is able to access a plurality of different services including cable channels, interactive program guides, pay per view activation, video on demand and interactive online services such as world wide web browsing and E-mail via their home television set. A mechanism is provided whereby applications on a home device (HCT) can be activated from the server via a signaling message received from the HCT, to provide the user with services such as Emergency Alert Messages, email, and other messaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,903,779 issued Jun. 7, 2005 to Dyer entitled “Method and system for displaying related components of a media stream that has been transmitted over a computer network” discloses a system and method for displaying related components of a media stream that has been transmitted over a computer network that includes at least one storage device that communicates with a television decoder and with the video display. Information from one or more components of the media stream is extracted from the media stream and delivered to one or more storage devices. This stored component is subsequently transmitted to the video display in response to an information release signal that is embedded in the information. The invention can be used to display, closed caption and other information with associated audio and video signals using an audio-visual media player.
United States Patent Application No. 20030121036 to Lock, et al. published on Jun. 26, 2003 entitled “CATV messaging alert system” discloses an invention that relates generally to use of standard video scan lines of commercial television programming in a cable television system for transmitting alerting and other messaging information, to an alert receiver unit at an end user's address. The alert receiver unit operates completely independently of any television set at the end user's address, other than to send the CATV signal from the alert receiver unit to the television set. The subscriber or other user can send certain pre-selected signals to the operator of the cable TV system, to another subscriber/user, or to another recipient designated by the operator of the cable TV system. The invention relates to emergency notification systems and to systems for communicating emergency messages to subscribers to cable television distribution networks, as well as to non-subscribers.
United States Patent Publication No. 20040181811 to Rakib published on Sep. 16, 2004 entitled “Thin DOCSIS in-band management for interactive HFC service delivery” discloses circuitry and process for transmitting video-on-demand and interactive service data and other service data on an MPEG multiplex and sending management and control data including conditional access. The management and control data can include requested application software for download to the STBs, requested program guide data, conditional access key data such as EMM messages, event provisioning data, emergency alert service data, and messages to manage and control the interactive and VOD services, and targeted advertising, etc.
United States Patent Publication No. 20050015799 to Park published Jan. 20, 2005 entitled “Apparatus and method for displaying out-of-band (OOB) channel information in open cable system” discloses an apparatus and a method for displaying out-of-band information without turning on a TV or set-top box in an open cable system. A receiving unit receives an out-of-band signal transmitted from a headend and parses the signal. A storage unit stores the parsed data and a user's display setting. A processing unit loads the user's display setting from the storage unit and processes the data according to the user's display setting. A control unit further processes the processed data and causes the further processed data to be displayed on an auxiliary display or main display, wherein the auxiliary display displays the further processed data in a stand-by mode state. The OOB signal may contain an electronic program guide (EPG), impulse-pay-per-view (IPPV), Data, an emergency alert system (EAS), video on demand (VOD), web, e-mail information and the like.
United States Patent Publication No. 20050151639 to Bulmer published Jul. 14, 2005 entitled “Alert System” discloses a system for alerting the public regarding a criminal act; a plurality of law enforcements modes which generate alerts related to a criminal or emergency issue and transmit the same to a central server; a central server system including an administration workstation and database for receiving the alerts and creating broadcast messages; and a broadcast system associated with the central server for broadcasting an alert via a televised broadcast, internet transmission or satellite transmission.
United States Patent Publication No. 20050162267 to Khandelwal, et al. published on Jul. 28, 2005 and entitled “Emergency alert service” discloses an emergency alert service that responds to receipt of emergency alert messages by filtering, formatting and routing emergency alert information to a variety of different networked appliances (and also to remote devices). In this way, a consistent warning message is disseminated simultaneously over many different warning systems, thus increasing warning effectiveness while simplifying the warning task. The system thus provides a common alerting protocol that is capable of exchanging all-hazard emergency alerts and public warnings over different kinds of networks.
United States Patent Publication No. 20050198684 to Stone, et al. published Sep. 8, 2005 entitled “Method and apparatus for providing a DSG to an OOB transcoder” discloses a method and apparatus for providing a DOCSIS Set-top Gateway (DSG) to OOB transcoder in a cable television system comprising a legacy set-top device. In the first embodiment, a one-way DSG to OOB transcoder acts as a proxy device for OOB messages to the DSG tunnel. These OOB messages may include messages containing system information, emergency alert information, and conditional access information. These set-top devices equipped with one or more DOCSIS tuners are referred to as “DSG compatible” set-top devices. Once an OOB message is generated, the OOB message is transmitted to the DSG tunnel. The DSG to OOB transcoder of the present invention then captures the OOB message, and communicates the OOB message to the legacy set-top device. In a second embodiment of the invention, the legacy set-top device may communicate return communications to the DSG to OOB transcoder by generating a QPSK message. The QPSK message is then translated to an OOB message comprising DOCSIS content.
“Digicable” is another prior art system supplied by General Instrument (Motorola) for end-to-end satellite and cable system distribution networks. It uses an out-of-band data channel to deliver common system information associated with all in-band channels. Out-of-band traffic in these systems included: Entitlement Management Messages (EMM) addressed to individual STBs and carrying conditional access secure authorization instructions for requested services; Service Information that supports the STB navigation application with information about the requested service; program guide information to display what is on the various channels at various times; an Emergency Alert System messages to cause the STB to display a text message, play an audio message or force tuning to an alert channel.
From the foregoing, it is clear that while the prior art has generally recognized the need to receive and provide EAS data to client devices over analog networks, and to enable EAS decode and display capability compatible with an audio/video decoder on a client device, it fails to address several issues pertaining to IPTV deployments. For example, when EAS data is embedded with packets belonging to a particular video format, decoders that wish to receive video in another format cannot make use of this EAS data stream. This requires that the IPTV operator repeat EAS data for each different video format anticipated in the network.
Moreover, the prior art fails to make effective use of the pervasive connectivity of an IP network to distribute various functions of EAS data reception, formatting, streaming, service authentication etc. across multiple servers located at different locations and communicating with each other over the IP network.
Accordingly, what is needed are apparatus and methods that provide a mechanism for receiving multiple channels of baseband video in real-time from the content providers (typically received via satellite or some local origination source) while also providing for the capability to receive and deliver emergency alert data in multiple forms (i.e., audio, video, and text data) to the end-user's client device application for display and presentation. Such apparatus and methods should be preferably deployable over a packet-switched network (such as an IP network), such that subscribers can use the service by using commonly available PC or similar software applications. They should also be able to localize or regionalize the delivery of the EAS data (e.g., by zip code or some other geographic metric), and substantially pre-empt at least portions of ongoing programming so that the emergency alert data is clearly and unequivocally communicated to the targeted subscriber base. Lastly, these methods and apparatus would require only minimal changes to existing systems, thereby leveraging the installed infrastructure as much as possible.